Blue Ray or DVD??? What's gonna happen?

[cjefferys]

That's good old Sony for you. It looks like mine can only go from PC to MD, not the other way around anyway. I'm only going to play around with it at any rate, I just like fooling around with tech that's new to me. Buying blank MDs that can only hold 80 minutes of music isn't really cost effective when I can put 32 Gigs of music on my cell phone.

[generic]

Holy cow, this is a long thread!

1. I had BETA growing up. It was a great format but there were no places near us that rented BETA. You'd pass by 20 VHS rental places (including one that I could walk to) to get to the place that rented BETA. We eventually got VHS mainly for that reason.

2. I don't own a single Blue Ray disc, but I do own a Blue Ray player. My DVD player died last year, so I asked for a Blue Ray player for Christmas. Not because I wanted to start watching Blue Ray discs yet, but because it plays both Blue Ray and DVDs. Why not?

3. It took a lot of looking to find a Blue Ray player that would definitely play all formats of DVD-R, so if you want a Blue Ray player that will play ALL of your DVD-Rs, do some research before buying one.

[Adam West]

There are a few current trends that will cause a huge upswing in blu-ray. 1. HDTV sets are becoming very affordable. I remember my wife and I bought our first television...a 19inch Zenith color tele...this was early 1990's. It was about $400. You can purchase a decent 32 inch 1080p LCD TV for less than $400 right now. Blu-Ray players with internet connectivity can be found for less than $100 complete with Wi-Fi and I have seen no-name brands as low as $50. Current blu-ray releases are being priced at $18 or so and usually include a normal format DVD and digital copy. It does look like 3-D is the next "thing" but not sure if it will catch on completely. I have a son who feels motion sickness watching a 3-D movie and heard this was common. Video on Demand will be the next big thing but as others have said, I also like the idea of owning the physical items so I can lend it, sell it, etc.

[ctc]

>Porn made VHS the Winner

....AND DVD. Since something like 40% of all movies made are porn, if you can get the skin market on your side you're in. Er.... you know what I mean....

>So is Hairy Bush Porn.

....been hittin’ the asian sites, huh?

>I vastly prefer buying physical media,

Me too, ‘cos it’s a lot more durable and versatile. But how much does the average person care about that? Other than a handful of films, most folks just watch whatever comes out and forget it as soon as the NEXT batch of whatever comes out. Permanence isn’t a concern. (“In the future, EVERYTHING is disposable.”) I think that’s one reason why you’ll see downloads more prevalent than a new format: people will go for the cheaper option, not care about permanence, and if they’re not a videophile they’re likely not real concerned about “superHD-ultraTV whatzits.”

Don C.

[Werewolf]

>Porn made VHS the Winner

Again, no. That's a popular misconception.

Adult VHS tapes and DVDs sell a pitance in comparision to Hollywood movies and children's programing. The market isn't large enough to play a deciding factor.

[megoapesnut]

I had BETA growing up. It was a great format but there were no places near us that rented BETA. You'd pass by 20 VHS rental places (including one that I could walk to) to get to the place that rented BETA. We eventually got VHS mainly for that reason.

BINGO!!! They can claim any reason they want for why Beta lost the format wars. But what you just described is the REAL reason in a nutshell. That's what everybody else did as well. And the reason for what you described is because of Sony's poor marketing decisions and JVC's great marketing.

[Mikey]

If i'm correct, one Beta tape could not hold an entire length movie in best quality mode.

I think that was a big factor too.

[Adam West]

Our family's decision on Beta vs. VHS was quite simple. We went to our local video rental store to see what they had more of VHS or Beta....it was by far VHS.

I can still remember that my parents actually splurged on a VHS one Christmas when they are relatively new...something they never did. I know they paid close to $800 for it!!!! Seems unbelievable today but it's true. It was such a cool experience to watch movies that I had only seen in theaters at home. We didn't have cable and never were going to get it (we lived in a semi rural area and were told by the cable company if we wanted it; we would have to pay for the labor to run the line a couple of miles from the nearest cable line to our house).

[megoapesnut]

I paid $1500 for a top of the line Hi Fi stereo VHS deck made by GE in the early days. It was one of the first consumer models that had stereo. I might even still have that deck up in the attic. I also paid $1500 for a Pioneer Elite combo laserdisc/DVD player. I was the first person I knew at the time to own a DVD player. I was also early on the Blu-ray bandwagon with a Sony Blu-ray server/jukebox. You don't even want to know what I paid for that. I don't even want to remember what I paid for that.

[megoapesnut]

Our family's decision on Beta vs. VHS was quite simple. We went to our local video rental store to see what they had more of VHS or Beta....it was by far VHS.

I rest my case